National spotlight for Mountain West QBs

Posted by Kevin McGuire on September 27, 2013, 8:00 PM EST

AP

The Friday night match-up between Utah State and San Jose State may not be on most radars among casual college football fans, but it certainly has importance in the Mountain West Conference. The two newest members of the Mountain West Conference get a chance to showcase their programs on the national stage Friday night, giving the nation tuning in a chance to check out their quarterbacks.

By now most casual fans may be aware of Utah State’s Chuckie Keeton. Keeton emerged on the scene last year for the Aggies and entered this season as a dark-horse candidate for the Heisman Trophy. The Heisman campaign may be out of gas already after Utah State has dropped two games to Pac 12 opponents on the road (Utah, USC) but Keeton still has plenty of reasons for fans to tune in and catch a glimpse. Keeton has a way to extend plays and has already proven to be a valuable piece in Utah State’s offense. Keeton has thrown 14 touchdown passes to just one interception and his pass accuracy is still over 70 percent after completing just 53 percent of his passes last weekend at USC.

San Jose state has their own quarterback weapon of course. David Fales has faced stiffer competition and has not had quite the offensive production of his Utah State counterpart, but few are suggesting Fales is not a competent quarterback just yet. Optimum Scouting ranks Fales as the fifth best quarterback in the 2014 NFL Draft, just ahead of Fresno State’s Derek Carr, and predicts a second round draft selection for the Spartans quarterback. Fales completed 67.4 percent of his passes for 216 yards against Stanford in week two, in Palo Alto.

Both quarterbacks are probably trailing Fresno State’s Carr right now for conference MVP honors, largely in part because Fresno State is undefeated, but Keeton and Fales have an opportunity Friday night to prove their teams are going to be in the mix moving forward in to October.

The two have combined for nearly 2,000 passing yards, exactly 20 touchdowns and just four interceptions in the first few weeks of the season. Think we will see some offense in San Jose this evening? Oh yes. There will be offense.